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Harvard University Librarian Robert Darnton will discuss the fate of books and libraries in the digital world during a Scholars’ Convocation on Thurs., Oct. 6 at 11 a.m. in Faulconer Gallery of the Bucksbaum Center for the Arts on the Grinnell College campus.

Darnton, an internationally recognized scholar on the history of the book, has been a critic of the privatization of digitized books and has called for a national digital library. His convocation at Grinnell, “Books and Libraries Post-Google,” will be held against the backdrop of two Faulconer Gallery exhibitions about the history of publishing in China. A third related exhibition in Burling Library, “From Papyrus to Kindle: A Glimpse at the History of Printing in the Western World,” illustrates technology’s influence on publishing.

Darnton, also an author and scholar of the French Enlightenment, is Harvard’s Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and University Librarian. He has served as president of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the American Historical Association, and has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the British Academy.

Darnton’s Grinnell lecture is part of the college’s ongoing Scholars’ Convocation series. Grinnell welcomes the participation of people with disabilities. Information on parking and accessibility is available on the college website. Accommodation requests may be made to Conference Operations at 641-269-3235 or calendar@grinnell.edu.